Chinese choreographer Gu Jiani is back with her work of three years, to explore a grand life subject of “Transition” with a special dancing language. The artist spent more than 1000 days on creating “Transition”, which shows her observation of city, human and society, and her feelings of the ever-changing everything. It is a breathtaking piece using advance philosophy and extreme body.

After its debut in May last year, “Transition” received positive feedbacks from both the audience and media. People are impressed by the power and flowing vibe in “Transition” and are surprised by Gu’s extraordinary choreography.  They say that they are looking forward to watching it again and “they will follow Gu’s work from now on.”

During the 1000 days of creation, “Transition” is also “transitioning” between rehearsals. It may not be a direct judgement of what’s happening, but a whole series of exploration of the subject “transition” with Gu’s signature body power and visual language.

 

Gu Jiani is a “hermit” and “fakirs” in dancing. She does not fear difficulty or injury. Her “UNTITLED GROUP ”has been practicing the “pushing” of martial art for many years, and using it in dancing movements, which gives Gu’s work a special vibe. Gu’s dancers are rough, and the dancers will express themselves with an authentic and pure style.

 

 Gu Jiani always breaks the “security feeling” on stage. Some of her movements are well calculated that they can only be performed at a precise point. The dancers are “at risk” as they use an explosive yet controllable body language, movements that are precise or even risky, and abnormal standing postures. The “risk” helps them to break the boundaries of body.

People who watched Gu Jiani’s work will be compelled by the strong power in it. The power comes from human body itself. It is cold, sharp, while being bold and exciting. Gu Jiani always challenges the physical limitation of dancers to show the great power of human body.

All stage elements on “Transition” carry an ever-changing observation of nature. Gu Jiani sets up 4 figurines and 40 boxes in the work, which is a metaphor of complex by using a simple setting. The plastic figurines show the inner meaning under a special surface.

Sound composition Gan Jian uses vocal pattern such as low-frequency and vibration to bring some new levels to the work. The voices can influence everyone’s mental status and show the “linkage between human beings.”

Concept Designer & Choreographer | GU JIANI

Dancers | WANG XUANQI  MING DA  SHI FEIYANG GU JIANI

Sound Designer | GAN JIAN

Lighting Designer & Technical Director | RAY

Stage Designer | GU JIANI

Costume Designer | ZHANG SISI

Lighting Design Operator | LIU HENGZHI

Sound Operator | BAN HUA

Stage Design Operator｜CHEN LIANGRU

Stage Manager | ZHOU YAJING

Videographer and Photographer | HUA DONG  CAHNG XIAO

Video Editor | GU JIANI

Graphic Designer | FAN CONG

Stage Production | WANG BOMING

Producer | GU JIANI

Executive Producer | YANG FUYAO

 

Production  | UNTITLED GROUP

Co - Commissioned by | YAP Festival / Freespace，West Kowloon Cultural District / Shanghai International Dance Center Theater

 

The Chinese name of UNTITLED GROUP can be translated and broken down into the components of “shi kou” and “wu". In this contrast of the two concepts, a process of extraction, inversion, and exchange occurs, allowing for the discovery of many meanings, and at the same time, a return to the thing itself. From this, is a play on the idea that the "organization" is built from no organization. This is the core behind Gu Jiani's establishment of the working group UNTITLED GROUP. The creation of the working group attempts a series of multi-media exploration through the construction of body, visuality, sound, objects and space, discovering new languages in the relationship between physics and psychology. UNTITLED GROUP is an extension of the "Go & N SPACE body plan", which was jointly established by Gu Jiani and Li Nan in 2013, and building on the work with Gu's dance partner Wang Xuanqi in 2016.